First we take BA, then we take the World
TL;DR from the OG hacker houses to global outreach — how the BA community managed to get their voices out there and join the big Blockchain movement that’s aiming to shake down institutions and make a lasting change in the world.
At this point, after our last two blog posts, it is clear why South Americans landed on this decentralized world. But we still haven’t gone into the how.
If you read this post by Ryan on the Decentraland blog, you will grasp a bit of knowledge to answer this question. Most times, there is a local element that brings people together and pushes them to work (and in this case BUIDL) towards a common goal.
In this particular case, the Voltaire House, the first hacker house in Buenos Aires, brought together some serious talent: Manuel and Demian (Zeppelin), Esteban and Ari (Decentraland), Dario (Muun), the list could go on forever. The nice thing about hacker houses is its openness and agnosticism: if you have something cool to build, we got somewhere cool where you can set up your operations and connect with others. As simple as that.
Now you can be super tunnel-visioned building, but at some point, something — especially when we are navigating uncharted territories such as building tools on decentralized settings — shakes you down, wakes you up and makes you understand that you need to get more out there, into the world, and help other people in diverse locations that share the same ideals as you.
“I first became aware of the magnitude of the blockchain, the first time I sent some bitcoins with a script I had written myself, learning about the technology. When the tx broadcasted to the network I realized this new money was unstoppable (both in terms of each individual uncensorable tx and in that anyone in the world could play with it without permission from banks or governments). Of course, there are also people that inspire you to think globally by facilitating the spreading of the vision we all share, in my case, Erik Voorhees, Zooko and Andreas Antonopoulos played this part.” — Manuel Araoz (Zeppelin) re-tells the moment when he realized that Blockchain — in this particular instance, Bitcoin — would change the world.
For Zeppelin, for instance, quoting the Decentraland blog post, it was the DAO hack. An unexpected attack that made everyone on the Ethereum ecosystem realize that we needed better tools, more security, and more code audits. This particular attack split the community, kept it in a vigil for weeks; and changed the way a large number of groups were working.
Local actions matter, but the real impact happens when these go global. As local communities grow larger and gain traction — most of the times via social media — they are able to attract those “stray cats” that are living abroad, and somehow started focusing more on their new reality, forgetting their roots. Actions like ETHBuenosAires bring all these people together with the minds alike, and push us towards building a global community.
The decentralized, non-judgmental, open-minded nature of the people coming together on the Blockchain ecosystem provides a perfect setting: you can feel at home wherever you are. Basically, you just need to ask your peers to connect you with people on any corner of the world, and there will always be someone offering you a place to sleep, eat, and a place to BUIDL.
Here in Buenos Aires, we’re waiting with our arms wide open to receive the global community, and most particularly, to gather all the stray cats in South America and help them understand that the world belongs to all of us.
